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Successful Community Health Worker Schemes in the Ireland
There are four main community health worker schemes currently running in Ireland, and these four projects shine a light on the valuable and necessary work of the community health worker. NICHE is a cork based project which uses a community development approach to improve the health and wellbeing of those in the community and aims to remove any barriers that stop people from receiving health enhancing care.CAN Action Learning Group. Model of a Community Health Worker. Combat Poverty Agency. 2009.'' ''ISBN: 978 -1-905485-76-5 Established in 1998, the NICHE group has been working in the Knocknaheeny/Hollyhill area of Cork city. It employs 5 community health workers and has a board of management helping run the project. The NICHE group organises activities and classes for the community and it does so with a community development approach. The programmes organised by this group include: a) Health Information and Services b) Family Health c) Wellbeing and Lifestyle d) Arts for Health e) Food and Environment As these programme titles suggest, the aim of the NICHE group is to improve community health and wellbeing in a manner that uses the community development approach.NICHE Community Health Project. ''NICHE online. ''online Available from: http://www.nicheonline.ie/ 19th November 2014 . The role of the community health worker here in the NICHE group is that of someone who undertakes need assessment and delivers the services to the community in the form of activities and classes that are made available to them. The Fatima Group: Based in the Dublin 8 region of Dublin city, the Fatima Groups United (FGU), is an established community health project that uses an holistic approach to the enhancement of community health and wellbeing. In 2004, FGU partnered up with the HSE and trained the people of the community on community development to ensure that the local people would be part of the community health project. Some of the specific activities the Fatima group organise include: a) Holistic therapies b) Women and parenting groups c) Young people and health d) Providing access to different aspects of the community and health services. e) Working with men Cáirde: Another group that uses the community development approach is Cáirde. Cáirde’s main aim is working to reduce health inequalities in ethnic minorities. To encourage the participation of these ethnic minorities in Primary Care, a Community Development and Health Programme was established within Cáirde with the help of the HSE. The role of a community health worker in this scheme mainly involves relaying health information and policies to the community and helping those from minority groups to access the relevant health care.. PHCTP: Primary Health Care for Travellers Project works in partnership with Pavee Point. Their main focus is health promotion among the travelling community. They work from a social model of health and address the needs of the members of the community by: a) Access and relay health information b) Identify the different health needs of the community c) Take on an advocacy role d) Support services e) Liaise between health providers and the community These four projects are not the only community health projects in Ireland but they capture the nature and role of the community health worker as a whole. As the community in Ireland is continuously changing, with an ageing population and increasing diversity, the role of the community health worker will continuously change. Each individual community will have forever changing members and needs